The Magnolia gazette. [volume] (Magnolia, Miss.) 1872-current, 1887-06-10
HUMAN NATURE.

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1t is not every ignoramus, how
ever, who will venture to eriticise
a picture, or piece of music.
There is, perhaps, only one sub
ject in regard to which all men
feel themselves competent to ex-
press decided, well-matmed and
final opinion at the briefest notice,
and that subject is human nature.
And yet there is nothing more
difficult of comprehension. The
rule is that we Judge others by
ourselves, and that method is
faulty because we do not under
stand ourselves. Many a man
has taken his own courage for
granted until it has been tried in
battle; many a man has prided
himself upon the possession Of
philosophic temperament and
great power of sclf-control until
temptation or affliction has put
him to the test. But time and
experience may be depended upon
to convince the average man that
he is neither a hero nor d philoso-
pher, and then his vanity will seek
solace in the reflection that after
all he is as brave and wise as bis
neighbour s
Men talk about human natule
as though it were a simple thing,
and always the same. In reality,
it IS thing OF infinite complexity,
and thing which is always
changing. Napoleon had, or pro-
fessed to have, Just one key Tor
every character. He claimed that
selfishncss was in all men the pre-
dominant trait, and unqestionably
1T was so in him. But he did not
Judge others by himself IN other
respects. He had the slightest
doubt of his own intellectual SUI
periority, and he would aclxnowl-
edge no equality except that of a
common meanness of motive.
Many much smaller men have
made the same mistake. Your
cynical egotist invariably flatters
himself that his Judgment of hu-
man nature is infaIllble because it
is invariably harsh. Certainly it
is easy to overrate men, and there
are some enthusiasts who fall in
to that error; but il is lust as
easy to err in the opposite direc-
ton. gS Fl Af
The profoundest students Of hui
man nature have held that ali
characters are mixed, that good
and evil struggle for the mastery
over every human life, and that
even those with whom we arc the
most intimately acquainted are
likely TO surprise us sooner or
later with the revelation of some
unexpected trait. Masters like
Shakspere, Balzac and Thackeray
seldom attempted TO paint a char
lacter in plain black and white. In
the great tradgedies Of life which
they uncovered foi the entertain
ment and instruction of the world,
| the interest centres in the con-
flict Of rival passions and affections
i'll one breast: Justice and love
are at war, honor and ambition
are antagonized, the greed of gain
and the appetite for pleasure are
materially opposed. The great
dramatist or novelist places us in
the attitude of spectators in the
presence Of those spiritual battles
which rage through the human
heart, and sometimes leaves it
desolate and in ruins. Such
writer's, we say, are the great de-
| lineators of human nature. In its
depths and heights, in the start
ling contrasts of its good and
evil possibilities, in the eternal
coneqences which turn upon mo-
mentary decisions, they find occa-
sion for the exercise of all the
Strength aud subtlety, foralI in
the insight and foresight of geni-
us. For their work no external
action is valuable in itself, but
only as it serves to reveal charac-
| ter OF to conceal it. 1t is not the
adventure, but the adventurer for
whom they care. s
but we must make a distine-
! tion between character and human
nature.goN Nature is innate tenden-
ltYa character isan acquired habit
of mind 1T is the orthodox doc
trine that the prevailing tendency
| in human nature is towards evil.
and that a good character is only
acquired by strenuously resisting
that tendency. ssOf thine own
self beware, N exhorts George
Eliot. In that self lark the Sc.
lcret foes of happiness and peace.